Personal Ancestral File (PAF), as of 2013, is a discontinued free genealogy software provided by FamilySearch, a website operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It allowed users to enter names, dates, citations and source information into a database, and sort and search the genealogical data, print forms and charts, and share files with others in GEDCOM format. PAF also linked images and other media files to individual records.

History

The history of PAF ran in parallel with the evolution of GEDCOM, the de facto specification for GEnealogy Data COMmunication or exchange. Version 2.3.1, released in 1994, was the last version written specifically for the Macintosh operating system, though PAF 5.2.18, written for Windows, can be installed on Apple Mac OS X using CrossOver Mac. In 2004 there were speculations about PAF being made

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

. Version 5.2.18.0 began with an adaptation of Incline Software's

Ancestral Quest Ancestral Quest (AQ) is a genealogy software application for Microsoft Windows developed by Incline Software, LC. It features data entry with sourcing capabilities and scrapbook extensions; a ''print engine'' for standard or custom charts and repo ...

program, written by Gaylon Findlay. Findlay has been involved in updates of PAF.Personal Ancestral File for Macs - Selected FAQ
"The current version of Personal Ancestral File for the Macintosh is 2.3.1. The current IBM versions of Personal Ancestral File are 4.0.4.18 and 5.2.18 (as of Aug 2002). Ancestral Quest has been developed separately, although it retains much of the basic visual layout and file structure of PAF. , PAF was discontinued.

Releases (1984–2002)

The following is a selected release history: *PAF 1.0 ( DOS) released in April 1984. Written in

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

and did not have support for GEDCOM. *PAF 2.0 (DOS,

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...

) released in April 1986. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 2.0. Due to PAF's slowness in BASIC, it was rewritten in C. *PAF 2.1 (DOS, Apple PRO-DOS, Macintosh) released in 1987. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.2 (DOS, Apple PRO-DOS, Macintosh) released in 1989. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.3 (DOS, Macintosh) released in 1994. The Macintosh version was called ''PAF:Family Records'' and ''MacPAF''. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 2.31 (DOS, Macintosh) released 30 Sep 1994. This was the final release of the Macintosh version and only worked on Classic OS - OS 8.5 through OS 9.2.2. Supported an early specification of GEDCOM 4.0. *PAF 3.0 (DOS) released May 1997. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. *PAF 3.0M (DOS) released June 1999. A maintenance release of PAF 3.0; Shows as Release 3.01M. *PAF 4.0 released 28 June 1999. (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. PAF 4.0 was based on Ancestral Quest. *PAF 5.0 released in November 2000 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. First version to support Unicode allowing multiple languages."Software upgrade makes names easier to submit to temple"
'' Church News'', March 24, 2001: "PAF 5.0 was recently updated to accept most of the world's alphabets and now has screens in and prints reports in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Swedish and German." Included was a standalone read only Palm OS application to view, but not edit, PAF data. * PAF 5.1 released in 2001 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Support multiple languages. * PAF 5.2 released 23 July 2002 (Win9x/NT) Freeware. Supports the current GEDCOM 5.5 specification. Supports multiple languages."Updated PAF 5.2 available"
'' Church News'', August 10, 2002.

Multilingual support

*PAF 4.x supported English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French; PAF 4.0.4 was the last version for French, Spanish, and Portuguese *PAF 5.x supported English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, and Swedish

References

External links

PAF support page
at FamilySearch.org
PAF Tutorial
at Brigham Young University (2007)
Alternatives to PAF
from FamilySearch
Modern Software Experience: A Brief History of Personal Ancestral FileModern Software Experience: Why PAF is still popular
{{Genealogy software 1983 software Products and services discontinued in 2013 Discontinued software Genealogy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Windows-only freeware Windows-only genealogy software

History

Releases (1984–2002)

Multilingual support

See also

References

External links